Tuesday, May 12, 2009

“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.” - T. E. Lawrence, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom

After the events of the past two weeks it is glaringly obvious that Barack Hussein Obama – or whoever is controlling him – is such a man. The Democrats have realized their Liberal dream of a Socialist America.

Much commentary and analysis has been put forth by the worthy and well-qualified. As details of the Stimulus bill leaked, like many right-thinking Americans I became overwhelmed by the disastrous implications. The human spirit can only take so much despair and anxiety; eventually feelings of helplessness set in, and with that a sense of depression. It is so terrible, what they have done to our country . . .

It finally occurred to me that as an individual there is little or nothing that I can do. To paraphrase the great Humphrey Bogart, as the American soldier of fortune Rick in Casablanca: “. . . it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world . . . here's looking at you kid . . .”

To me, the world has gone insane; my government has been taken over by a criminal gang of asylum escapees – like the Fascists of Italy and Germany, Russia under the Soviets, or the Cultural Revolution of Maoist China - and things will never, ever be the same again.

Of course this is still America; we are not about to become the Third Reich with overt symbology, jackbooted brownshirt thugs and sicko philosophies. There will not be destructive Communist collectivization campaigns, May Day parades of rolling tank formations, heroic anthems and red stars all over the place.

Instead, the substance and form of American Socialism will have a distinctly American flavor. Government dictated salary constraints for CEOs are a sinister sign of things to come. There will be an insidious, creeping incrementalism of political correctness, endless laws, rules and regulations, constricting tax codes, loyalty oaths, etc.

The unholy religion of secular humanism will be increasingly force-fed to our children via a daily barrage of mind-numbing falsehoods by the liberals who infest every nook and cranny of academia. The destructive, perverted sexual ethos of the left will be infused in the name of “diversity”, “progressiveness”, and public hygiene. As dwindling medical resources become rationed (as a direct result of government-provided universal healthcare) Planned Parenthood resources and abortion clinics will be openly advertised on grade school bulletin boards; such services will be actively encouraged by school nurses and science teachers.

The Second Amendment will be trampled upon, of course; the rights of the law-abiding citizenry to own and carry firearms will soon be infringed to the point where the entire country comes to resemble the liberal bastions of Massachusetts, New York, or California.

To provide the trillions of (non-existent) dollars now guaranteed by law, the Treasury must run its printing presses twenty-four/seven. The direct result will be hyper-inflation. Expect to see gasoline at $12 a gallon. Barack Obama and his cohorts in Congress have effectively taken the helm of the greatest free market economy in the world – an economy three times larger than all the rest of the world put together – and like the captain of the Titanic they are sailing us full steam ahead into the ice field.

The new balance of power in our country is what it is - billions of stimulus pork dollars to ACORN guarantee this, if nothing else. To me, trying to engage on a political level is like standing at the edge of the sea and commanding the tides to stop from rolling in. Unless a miracle occurs and another Reagan emerges, we are well and truly done for a long, long time to come.

In order to preserve my sanity in this new reality, I have chosen not to become a victim. I will not to stand by and watch as the entire train wreck occurs; it will happen with or without me. Instead, I will ignore the idiots in Washington and the disastrous direction their politics take us. I will become like Schindler: while the world around me goes insane I will make business, do what I can to carve out a niche of sanity and perhaps save a handful of individuals along the way.

For I too dream with my eyes open. Fortunes are to be made during times like this and I intend to make mine. While we may or may not experience the conditions of the Great Depression, our country is right on track to European-style Socialism. What we WILL experience is a nightmare economy that will make the 1970s look like days of wine and roses. That having been said, however, I still believe that America is the best place for free enterprise in the whole world.

I say this because we are not in the 1930s. The wealth and resources around us simply did not exist eighty years ago. Even in the 1930s, America went to the poorhouse in an automobile. In the America of the Information Age it is possible for an unemployed individual to start up a corporation via the Internet, and to successfully engage in commerce with what’s left of his or her depleted life savings.

Consider for a moment how incredibly difficult it is to achieve such a thing in any other developed nation. In any other land, the culture of upward progression does not exist. Career paths into the trades or professions are determined by middle school; the average worker does the same job for decades until retirement. Productivity is hobbled because there is little or no incentive to excel. Old World class systems and entrenched bureaucracies impede entrepreneurship; land and resources are severely limited.

Foreign concerns still look to America to expand or start new businesses because we have nearly unlimited space and resources. American workers are the most productive in the world; we possess a mindset that embraces excellence and achievement. Our “Can-Do” spirit, combined with our abundant natural resources, will eventually absorb the destructive effects of the Democrat’s Liberal policies.

This doesn’t mean that climbing out of this mess will be an easy stroll through the park, not by a long shot. What it means is that we still have Hope – we are far from the point of utter despair. We always have Hope. Surrender is not an American word.